


And Boil the Sea

by gardnerhill



Category: Firefly, Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Space, Community: watsons_woes, Gen, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-08
Updated: 2012-10-08
Packaged: 2017-11-15 21:19:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/531838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Holmes and Watson get around - even into the 'verse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Boil the Sea

"It's about the Tams," Hong said. "Shiny."

I hadn't even had time to run the gorram message through the decipher. "Boss, how the _tsao gao_ did you know that?"

"End what don't fit and that's what sticks." Shiny Hong grinned at me. "I'm the best tracker in the 'verse, as you keep saying in your reports back to the Alliance, and I don't work cheap. What news could there be for us, that ain't about the _Serenity_ and the Tams?" 

There's "smart," and then there's _scary_ -smart. Shiny Hong'd have to take a couple rounds to the head to go down to being just "smart." Alliance knows it, too; they have planet-wide sweeps and patrols to look for big things, but for small things that are hard to find they send a message to Asteroid B221B, population two, and wire the cash to Hong's account. 

"Suppose that's right. Not much else out there but the Tams." Well, that and Miranda – as if there wasn't something everyone edged around these days. I'd wanted that rutting traitor Reynolds in my gunsight for so long I didn't want to think that maybe he'd been right about one or two things. Miranda was...was big. Too big. Like finding out that lurking under the whole 'verse there really were four gorram elephants on a giant tortoise. Trying to eat you. 

My partner confronted the unspeakable head-on as usual, and dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "What everyone is thinking about and that no one will talk about will be explained and soothed away, new entertainments will be provided, and soon anyone who mentions Miranda will be dismissed as a twitch-head. Too big, Jackson – too big for us. This, we can do. Finding the Tams is easier."

I just bust out laughing at that one, and Shiny laughed too. Sure, the Tams were easier, the way stealing a planet's easier than collecting a star. Considering that all the Alliance had to do to collect the Tams was find one rutting little Firefly stuffed full of Browncoats and gorram step on it, they'd been doing a stunningly poor job. Nowadays _Serenity_ practically waltzes up to Alliance ships, hovers right in front of their sights, then lights ass and disappears. Assassins, agents, an entire fleet hadn't been able to stop the ship let alone take her cargo. The Tams were the Holy Grail for bounty hunters, and just as easy to get. 

But they'd tried flat-out genocide to bring the Tams and all they'd brought was more death. That little girl…It wasn't blood and firepower they wanted to do the job; it was a brain as sharp and smart as their little genius. 

"What's the reward up to now?" I asked, curious. I pulled Mary and Violet down from the gun-wall; they'd need a cleaning if we took this one. 

"Blue blank. Shiny."

I almost dropped Mary. Blue Sun was bankrolling. And whoever brought the Tams in could gorram name their price. A planet apiece? 

"Now that," Shiny Hong said dreamily, " is some dangerous _go sa_."

I felt the same grin curl onto my face. "Tempting. Go after the Tams, or die of old age?"

"From the man who once took out six Reivers single-handed?" Hong reached up for her viol, displaying the arm-long knife-scar that was all the rutting monsters had time to do to her before I charged in. "It is tempting. Die of ennui, or of _Serenity_?" She began to play the  Browncoat March.

**Author's Note:**

> Another Watson's Woes prompt - one asking for a crossover.


End file.
